Porter brothers Tyler Wertz and Austin Tucker are the world's first patients with Becker muscular dystrophy who are being kept alive by mechanical heart pumps while they await heart transplants.

"It lets me live another day," said Tucker, 16, whom doctors at Methodist Hospital implanted with a left ventricular assist device last June, after Wertz, 18, received one in May 2010.

Each brother wears an over-the-shoulder satchel that contains a computerized device that circulates blood throughout the body.

"A heart transplant scares me. At the same time, I would have a better quality of life so I can go swimming and stuff like other kids do," said Wertz.

Especially swimming, Tucker added. Because the LVAD can't get wet, even showering is difficult.

"Our mom changes us and gives us our meds and does everything for us," said Wertz.

The boys have different names but the same parents. Their father's last name is Tucker. Wertz is the maiden name of their mother, Jennifer Banks, who remarried in 2002.

Now a single parent, Banks does double duty as a caregiver for her sons.

"Their mom had experience. She's been there from the beginning," said Dr. Jerry Estep, medical director of the heart transplant and LVAD program at Methodist Hospital. "We were in a position to offer them hope and therapy."

"My mother was the carrier," said Banks, explaining that Becker muscular dystrophy is an X-linked recessive disorder characterized by slow progressive muscle weakness.

The brothers are on the bridge to the transplant list, said Banks. "Because they are so young, as long as the heart pumps are working, it's best to put off a transplant because once you get a transplant, your life expectancy is 12 years at the most.

"They work with the transplant/LVAD team, but they are not on the list to get a transplant.

"They are on the bridge to transplant list," she stressed.

According to the MDA website, BMD primarily affects boys and men, who inherit the disease through their mothers.

Women can be carriers but usually exhibit no symptoms.

"Usually, it attacks their skeletal muscles first, but both of my sons started showing signs with their hearts," said Banks.

Wertz also battles more debilitating, skeletal effects of muscular dystrophy.

"Sometimes I'll just be walking and I'll fall down," he said.

Estep said the LVAD program at Methodist Hospital has about 90 patients, whose heart pumps, marketed since 2007, stop the progression of heart disease.

"There are three potential exit strategies," explained Estep.

"The LVAD can be a bridge to getting a heart transplant. It can be bridge to the decision with regard to transplant timing.

"And it can be destination therapy in and of itself."

The brothers "are nowhere near healthy," said Banks.

"But they can go watch football games and play video games and have their friends over."

The boys are home-schooled with the assistance of a teacher from Porter High School, said Banks.